by Lyn Gardner
“The girls are right, Jon,” said Alicia. “The audience enjoys the collusion so why spoil it for them by breaking the illusion and telling them how it’s being done?”
Jon didn’t look convinced.
“Look,” continued Alicia. “If you asked that man sitting behind you whether or not he believes in fairies, he’d laugh and say of course not. But I guarantee that in half an hour’s time, when Peter says that Tinkerbell is dying because she has drunk medicine poisoned by Captain Hook and the only way to save her is for everyone in the audience to say that they believe in fairies then that same man will shout that he does at the top of his voice and maybe even with a tear in his eye. I don’t know what is going on tonight but maybe you should just allow yourself to believe in magic.”
“Do you all believe in it?” asked Jon.
“Of course we do,” chorused Eel, Georgia and Aeysha.
Then Alicia added, “Like the rest of this audience, bar possibly you, while the curtain is up I’m prepared to believe that I am watching Cosi Wood give the performance of her life. Who is to say whether it’s true or just a beautiful illusion?”
“And tomorrow? What will we do at tomorrow’s performance?”
“Oh, don’t worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will sort itself,” said Eel brightly, and she sang a snatch from Annie. The lights dimmed and the curtain went up to reveal the Lost Boys’ home under the ground.
Cosi crept along the river path from the direction of the Swan. It was very dark and she felt a little frightened to be out on her own in such blackness. But the stars were out and she could see boats going up and down the river so although she was alone she didn’t feel too far from other people. But she was pleased she had her torch. Best of all, she could see the trees. Jack had fixed up some fairy lights and she could see the banners they had put up blowing in the breeze. She knew that she had to hurry if she was going to get back to the theatre in time for the curtain call. But the closer she got to the trees and Jack, the more her feet dragged. How she dreaded telling him! It wasn’t so much that she feared his anger; the thing she feared most was that he would pity her. She couldn’t bear that, although pity was the best that she could hope for and more than she deserved.
She was so close now that she could see Jack moving about in the trees. He was like a monkey, entirely unconcerned about how high up he was in the branches. She so admired his physical ease. She saw him swing himself on to a zip-wire and make his way to the ground, where he had a folding chair and small picnic table with a Thermos, a book and a torch. He unscrewed the Thermos and poured himself a cup of something hot. Cosi could see the liquid steaming by the light of his torch. It was, thought Cosi to herself, now or never. She started to step out from behind her tree but, instead of sitting, Jack put down his cup, picked up his torch and strolled away towards the bushes. She guessed he was going to relieve himself. She hung back, feeling a little bit embarrassed. She would hate to be caught spying so she turned off her torch. It was eerie standing alone in the pitch blackness.
As her eyes adjusted to the dark she noticed another figure bobbing through the trees from the other direction. The figure was torchless and running as lightly and soundlessly as a panther. She wondered whether it was a jogger. But the figure ran through the trees straight towards Jack’s table and, just for a moment, picked up Jack’s cup. Then he ran onwards, passing within a few trees of where Cosi was standing watching in the darkness. She held her breath and the figure passed on oblivious to her presence. What odd behaviour! For a moment Cosi had thought that whoever it was had intended to steal Jack’s cup. But who would want to steal a plastic cup? Maybe, she reasoned, it was a jogger overcome with a raging thirst while out for a run. But when she thought about it, she couldn’t remember seeing the figure take a drink; it had looked more as if he’d been putting something into the cup. Maybe the jogger took sugar?
She was still puzzling when she saw Jack returning from the bushes. She waited until he sat down in the chair and picked up his book. She took a deep breath. She had to speak to him, and soon. It was almost nine fifteen. She knew that around now Tinkerbell would be drinking Peter’s poisoned medicine. Suddenly she realised what she had just witnessed. She saw Jack pick up the cup and raise it to his lips, and with a great screech Cosi started running towards him as fast as she could. Jack looked up in alarm as she skidded into him and knocked the cup from his hand.
“Hello, Cosi,” said Jack very calmly. “It’s lovely of you to pay me a visit, but shouldn’t you be on stage?”
“Your drink!” said Cosi, shaking with shock. “I saw somebody put something in it.” Jack looked sceptical. “I did!” she gasped. “I was hiding behind that tree and when you disappeared into those bushes somebody tampered with your cup.”
Jack picked up the cup, which had fallen on the grass. Most of the coffee had drained away, but a dribble remained along the side and there was a trail of white sediment behind it. His stomach lurched. This was getting serious. If Mr Wilkes-Cox was prepared to go to such lengths, somebody might get really hurt. He wondered whether Alicia was right to think there was a connection between what was going on here and the sabotage of the flying system at the theatre. He suddenly felt panicked. If Cosi was here, who was playing Wendy? He was sure he knew the answer.
“Is Liv paying Wendy?” he asked urgently and his eyes were dark with fear.
“Yes,” said Cosi. “She’s brilliant. But don’t worry. She’s completely safe. Nothing bad will happen to her. You don’t have to worry about the flying. I promise. But somebody has just tried to kill you!”
Jack re-examined the sediment in the cup. “It’s unlikely anyone hates me enough to want me dead. I think it’s probably just crushed-up sleeping pills. Somebody must be very keen for me to get a good night’s sleep. You realise what this means?”
“Yes,” said Cosi. “Mr Wilkes-Cox is going to try to cut down the trees tonight.”
“I thought after this morning’s fiasco he’d let things rest a few days but I was wrong. I suppose that after things started to appear on the Internet he decided he had to move quickly. I’m going to need your help, Cosi. Most of the others are at the theatre and they may not get here in time.”
“I’ll do whatever I can,” she said.
“I know you don’t like heights, but if I help you, do you think you could be very brave and climb up that tree?”
Cosi gulped. Then she looked Jack straight in the eye and said, “If that’s what it takes. But Livy said I had to go back to the theatre in time for the curtain call.”
“I think in the circumstances Liv will understand. I reckon that here is the place you’re most needed just at the moment.” They walked over to the tree and Jack gave Cosi a leg up. She scrambled on to the first branch. For a moment she felt dizzy, as if she was going to fall, but then she moved upwards again and it became easier. Jack was shining his torch to show her where the handholds were. Then he climbed up behind her, passed her with great agility, and clambered on to a small platform he’d erected. He reached down a hand and helped her up. Then he turned off his torch so they were sitting in darkness so complete they were unable to see each other’s faces.
“In a minute we need to start texting the others,” he said quietly. “But first, do you want to tell me why you’re not playing Wendy and why you’ve come to see me? I imagine it wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment social visit?”
Cosi swallowed very hard in the dark. She was finding it difficult to speak.
“Livy isn’t just playing Wendy,” whispered Cosi. “She’s pretending to be me playing Wendy.”
“Ah,” said Jack. For a moment there was silence. Then he said, “Stage fright?”
Cosi was so surprised that she almost fell out of the tree. “How did you know?”
“I experienced it once myself. On the high-wire. It was awful. Like being frozen inside, made of ice and fear not flesh and blood. I thought that if I had to walk any further I’d die and I’d have done
absolutely anything to avoid having to take another step.”
“That’s exactly how I felt about tonight. I really believed I’d die. It felt as if there was a crocodile out in the darkness waiting to gobble me up. Oh, Jack, I’ve been dreading it so much.” She looked at him, and could just make out his face in the gloom. “But you’re amazing on the wire! How did you get over it?”
“You never really get over it,” said Jack. “It’s always there, perched on your shoulder like a black crow cawing in your ear. But you learn to live with it and use it to your advantage. Of course, you have to love walking the high-wire or acting enough to get past it. I don’t think you like acting at all, do you? In fact, I think you hate it with a passion.”
There was a long pause while Cosi nodded, before realising that Jack couldn’t see her in the dark.
“I’ve got a confession,” she said. “I did something really terrible.”
“It’s all right, Cosi, you don’t need to tell me,” replied Jack quietly. “I know.”
“How?”
“From what you’ve just told me, and the fact you’re so certain Liv is safe on the flying rig. I thought this afternoon you were trying to confess something to me. I should have realised something was up when you were so interested in how the flying system worked.”
“I’m so sorry,” said Cosi.
“I believe you. You’ve been very brave coming here tonight. And if you hadn’t, I would have drunk whatever stuff was in that cup. I’d say we’re quits.”
Cosi smiled with relief. In the distance they heard a sudden roar of engines. Jack got out his phone and began texting. They could see the glare of headlights as the diggers and bulldozers started to roll towards them.
“Right,” said Jack. “Looks like it’s just you and me.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The curtain opened for the start of Act V and, as Olivia had predicted, when the pirate ship sailed into view, the audience gasped at how real it looked.
“A beautiful illusion,” muttered Jon under his breath, but by now he was grinning. It was clear that Peter Pan was going to be a huge success. Even the famously grumpy arts correspondent of a serious national newspaper had been heard loudly declaring he believed in fairies, and when the pirates stole Wendy and the Lost Boys away, the tabloid showbiz columnist had been hissing along with the rest of the crowd.
Jasper stood on the deck of the Jolly Roger and began Captain Hook’s famous speech: “How still the night is, nothing sounds alive…” The evening had been going swimmingly. Although he’d never admit it, Jasper had began to wonder if he’d made a mistake in signing up the entire family for Peter Pan. He’d thought Cosima was going to let them all down. But she’d surprised everyone tonight, and Cosmo was getting lots of praise too. If Peter Pan was a triumph perhaps they could go to Broadway and do The Tempest together. He’d always wanted to play Prospero. Cosmo would be a great Ariel and, although she was a little young for it, Cosi could be Miranda.
Michael, John and the Lost Boys were about to walk the plank.
“Bring up Wendy so she can watch them go to their doom,” cried Hook.
Olivia was pushed up the stairs.
“So, my beauty,” said Jasper with a dreadful laugh. “You are to see your children walk the plank.” He did a double take.
“Are they to die?” quavered Olivia, entirely unperturbed by Jasper’s reaction.
“Cosi?” hissed Jasper, forgetting where he was for a moment.
“Definitely Cosi,” whispered Olivia quickly, and she turned to the boys. “I have a message from your real mothers: We hope our sons will die like English gentlemen.”
The Lost Boys cheered.
“Impressive,” whispered Jasper, grasping immediately that it was not in the interests of the Wood family for the truth ever to come out.
“Like father, like daughter,” replied Olivia calmly, under cover of all the cheering, and Jasper thought of the YouTube clip of Cosi he’d watched earlier. Cosi was braver than ever he could be. He gave Olivia a quick wink and then they both carried on with the scene as if nothing had happened.
The show was reaching its end. The children had flown back from Never Land to the Darling nursery and been reunited with their delighted parents, and now the coda was being played in which many years later Peter Pan returns to the nursery where the grown-up Wendy now watches over her own daughter, Jane.
“Come with me to Never Land,” said Peter, oblivious to the fact that the long years have passed and although he has stayed just the same, Wendy has not.
“I can’t come, Peter. I’ve forgotten how to fly,” said Wendy.
Alicia shifted in her seat. The audience might believe that they were watching Cosi Wood, but Alicia knew she was watching her granddaughter, and wearing grown-up clothes Olivia looked so much like Toni it was almost unbearable.
“I’ll teach you again,” said Peter, blowing fairy dust on her.
“You’re wasting your time,” replied Wendy sadly. Olivia’s eyes glistened with tears.
“Why?”
“Because I am no longer young. I’ve grown up. I couldn’t help it,” replied Wendy. “That little girl is my baby.”
“What does she call you?” asked Peter fiercely.
“Mother,” whispered Wendy.
Alicia’s eyes spilled tears and she was not the only one in the audience. Every adult was recalling their own lost childhood, and every child was thinking how much they would love to fly away to Never Land to frolic with the mermaids in the sparkling lagoon under endless blue sky. The scene drew to its conclusion as Wendy’s daughter flew away with Peter Pan, and as the curtain fell so did the tears in the audience. There was a charged silence, and then the audience began to roar their approval.
Olivia was oblivious to the response. She was scanning the wings for Cosi, a look of panic on her face.
“Where is she?” she demanded. The other children looked around helplessly. There was no sign of Cosi. “She promised she’d be back. I can’t take the curtain call. I won’t get away with it. Somebody in the front row is sure to notice I’m not Cosi. What are we going to do?” The audience were cheering as the pirates ran on to take their bow.
“I can’t go out there!” wailed Olivia.
“It’ll be more suspicious if you don’t, Liv,” said Tom, taking her hand firmly. “If anyone in the audience has the slightest hunch that something funny is going on, Wendy’s absence at the curtain call will only confirm it. Jon said there were press out there. If they get a sniff of this, it’ll be all over the front pages tomorrow.”
“This is a disaster. She can’t do anything right,” said Olivia irritably.
Pablo hurried up to them, looking agitated.
“No sign of Cosi?”
Olivia shook her head angrily.
“You’ve got to take the curtain call, Livy. I’ve spoken to the guys on lighting. They’ll keep it all really low. Take the grips out of your hair and push it forward to keep your face covered. You and Cosmo should take your bow from the back of stage. One curtain only, then Jasper will take the limelight. Don’t come forward to join him until the whole cast do, and then, Tom, make sure you and the others hide her as much as you can. However much they stamp and cheer we’re going to cut the final curtain short.” He pushed them towards the stage…
The curtain swished closed for the final time. The lengthy applause finally died away as the audience realised it wasn’t going to rise again however much noise they made. Olivia looked around agitatedly from her position at the back of the stage. She was certain they had got away with it. But where was Cosi? Why hadn’t she turned up for the curtain call? Irritation had turned to worry and a real fear that something had happened to her friend. She hoped that Cosi hadn’t run away rather than face up to what she’d done. Tom had Olivia by the arm and was bundling her up the stairs with Cosmo. It was like being arrested.
“We’ve got to get you changed and out of the building before Jon comes
round and demands to see Cosi. We can just say that you’ve both gone. Hurry!”
They left her in the dressing room where she started quickly pulling on her own clothes. Suddenly there was a frantic banging on the door. She jumped in shock.
“Livy, Livy, it’s me, Eel!”
Olivia unlocked the door and her little sister tumbled into the room.
“Livy! I’ve had a message from Jack. Cosi’s at the Swan with him. We’ve got to get round there. Mr Wilkes-Cox is back with his diggers. The battle for the trees has begun.”
Olivia felt the adrenalin surge through her once more. “Go and tell everyone, including Pablo, and get moving,” she said, pulling on her trainers. “I’ll meet you there.”
Eel ran towards the door just as it opened and Alicia walked in, swiftly followed by Jasper. She squeaked and shot Olivia a look of sympathy before scooting off down the corridor.
“Jon’s been held up talking to the press but he wants to talk to you and Cosi right away,” said Alicia gravely. “And I want a word with you both too. Where is she?”
Olivia swallowed. “She’s at the Swan with Jack. Mr Wilkes-Cox has come back to cut the trees down.”
“So that explains the bizarre curtain call,” said Alicia. “You were lucky to get away with it. Now, I can’t condone what has gone on tonight—”
Jasper put up his hand to cut her off. “I want to thank you, Olivia Marvell. I think you’ve done Cosi a good turn tonight,” he said. Before he could continue, they heard Jon’s voice in the corridor.
The two adults looked at each other and seemed to reach a decision.
“Quick,” said Alicia, opening the window and peering out. “It’s not far down to that ledge and then beyond that to the ground. I’m sure you’re manage, Livy.”
Olivia grinned. “But you’re always telling me not to do dangerous things, Gran,” she said as she clambered out of the window.
“I make exceptions when it’s absolutely necessary,” said Alicia, slamming the window shut just as Jon walked into the room.
“Where are they?” he demanded.
